71st Independence - A Thought By A Common Indian

Proud Indians, as we are, celebrated our 71^st Independence Day. Upholding the tricolour of largest democracy on earth for 70 long years and continue to do so, really speaks for our culture, heritage and most importantly values imbibed by our ancestors. While ‘celebrating’ this Independence Day, we must not forget the toiling that has been put into for the cause. So, the onus is onto us to carry the heritage forward to our generation next.

Democracy, with all its limitations, is a process in itself, incessant practise of which keeps it refining with passing time. India, from the country that ravaged by the British rule for two hundred years to become a country of reckoning power in world today has voyaged considerably. During this course though, we have faced numerous snags but we kept on marching.  The Brits, while leaving our land, planted a poison tree called communalism and the fruit it yielded was Pakistan. Thousands of families became homeless and gutted during partition followed by unprecedented genocide. The Brits, however, cannot be held solely responsible for their did as they may have planted the seeds of the poison tree but the gardeners who nurtured and put it to full bloom were our fellow countrymen turned  politicians with their vested interest. Enough blood and tears have been shed over the ordeal and time with its greatest gift of healing made us get over it.

The serpent of communalism since tried several times to spread its fang but thanks to our sense of pluralism inculcated deep into our root, good sense always prevailed. But we must remember, there won’t be any stopping of recurrence of communal violence, if we collectively don’t repress it. Vindictive forces with acrimonious thoughts often trying to drive away people from the real problems like unemployment or health issues and instigations are in galore with communal provocative propaganda. These thoughts are being easily fuelled by the abundance of social media where instant comments and reactions are making scenario more perilous. A country as vast as ours, where we take great pride at our state of ‘Unity in Diversity’ having completed the journey of 70 years of democracy, it gives great pain if genocide happens in the name of religion. Unfortunately enough, count of this phenomenon is still aplenty. It only shows that even after 70 years of achieving and practising our democracy, as a nation we are still in our juvenile stage.  

Our ancestors fought hard to achieve freedom from the British and our soldiers are fighting to secure our borders from enemies across borders. We, civilians are a greater battle in our hand and that is to fight these communal forces trying to divide us.

If we aspire to achieve the successful meaning of democracy and become the forerunner in every sphere, we need to beat the demon of communalism collectively and step ahead resolutely.